Little Lambs Foundation for Kids

Jon Absey, was a person no one knew even though he performed in front of thousands of people regularly and he was in the community helping charities out almost every day for 25 years. Jon Absey kept his identity secret and to all of us was better known as the Utah Jazz Bear.  Dating back to his first season in Utah, he performed at over 900 NBA games, has donated 16,000-plus hours of assistance in the community for more than 300 community organizations, and raised more than one million dollars for charity in the process.  Jon has taken home more than 40 community and national awards, including eight mascot leadership awards, keys to two cities, been honored by three individual governors with his very own “Day in Utah”, been named Mascot of the Year in the NBA five times and Best Mascot out of all sports nationwide twice and, just recently was given an award for the best video by a mascot out of all sports nationwide.  He has been inducted into the YMCA Hall of Fame, the Utah Summer Games Hall of Fame, and the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006.  “The reason the character grew to be such a big part of the community was because of the help I had from everyone around me.  Without the help from people who cared, it wouldn’t have been as successful.”  Jon is so ever grateful for the understanding of his wife and children and the fact that they let him build this character even though it took him away from home way too much. Without them he would have just been an ordinary bear.